


Hooked On A Feeling

by Stygmia



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: 80s Music, Casette Players, Dib really loves his 80s music, Fluff, M/M, Slow Dancing, Truce, headphones, slight arguing, so does Zim but he won’t admit it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-14 09:58:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15386289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stygmia/pseuds/Stygmia
Summary: Dib introduces Zim to 80s music. He doesn’t expect the alien to like it so much.





	Hooked On A Feeling

Dib and Zim had, surprisingly, come to a truce.

Though it was temporary, there were no fights. They could argue, but punching and violence were not allowed. With Dib being tired of coming home at least one day every week by the time he was 19, covered in bruises, he decided he needed at least a short break.

He was surprised that Zim accepted his terms. I mean, it was only for a few weeks, but at least the break would allow Dib to to finish his college work, no matter how stupid it was. He was usually able to finish it pretty fast anyway. Dib was able to relax at the thought that he knew Zim wouldn’t do anything either. Zim had already made it apparent that Dib was his only motivation when it came to his evil schemes. Even though Zim wouldn’t really admit to it, it was clear that was the case. 

Even so, the two began to talk. Face-to-face, without the swearing and fist-fights. Dib was actually growing to enjoy the time they spent together and was relieved that he wasn’t getting his ass kicked by a short, green alien all the time anymore.

So Dib would say the progress they had made in 2 weeks was impressive. They had been hanging out at Dib’s place for the past few days, and talking about whatever random thought came to mind. Or they would tune each other out and work on their own things.

Dib couldn’t work without his music. His favorite kind was 80s; he couldn’t get enough of it. The smooth sound many of his favorite songs had were relaxing, and his favorite rock tunes, which was a whole new category, made him excited and feverish. He already looked retro enough with his black headphones attached to his Walkman, but this was a definite bonus. Nothing could better suit 80s music than a classic 80s device anyway.

Zim couldn’t quite understand Dib’s love for the music he listened to. Zim questioned just about everything, but every time he saw Dib wearing those headphones, he always had to make a snide comment. ‘Dib-filth, always blocking out my glorious voice and filling his ears with that muck,” Zim would say. ‘Hmph. Strange, disgusting humans.’

Dib didn’t mind Zim’s comments. It wasn’t like Zim knew what his music sounded like anyway. He had never asked to hear it, so Dib didn’t bother to show it to him. So they went through the day doing their own little things. Zim tinkered with whatever Dib gave him, and Dib listened to his 80s music mixtape and drew whatever Mysterious Mysteries creature had appeared the night before. It was all perfectly fine to him.

“Dib! Rubix’s Cube is confusing me. I want something else to occupy your valuable Zim time!” Zim had been spinning the little squares left and right trying to solve the puzzle, but after about 30 minutes of grueling effort, he gave up. With Zim being Zim, he got bored of his little toy very quickly. However, Dib was paying no mind to Zim at the moment. His mixtape was blasting through his headphones, and the only thing he cared about was that his drawing was a perfect image of whatever sat in his mind.

“Dib! I demand you listen to me! Dib-thing!” Zim continued screaming to no avail. Dib continued sketching away, swaying slightly to the tune of his music.

Zim lunged forward and gripped Dib’s shoulders. He shook Dib out of his trance, and Dib took his headphones off while Zim was still shaking him. It was quite a difficult feat.

“What?!” Dib asked, maybe a bit too loud for Zim’s tastes. The alien’s eyes narrowed to Dib, making him recoil slightly in fear.

“Zim!-“ Dib stopped himself and lowered his voice. The last thing he needed was a claw to the face. “Zim, look, when these are over my ears, I can’t hear a thing.” He placed his headphones in his lap. “So you don’t have to be so damn violent about me not responding. Okay?”

Zim scoffed and crossed his arms tight across his chest. “I don’t get what the big deal is about your little human hobbies. You just sit there with your paper and pen and.. do things! You can see all of that on television. You really do have the brain worms, Dib-smell.”

“I do it because it’s fun,” Dib responded, “and all you do is mess around with my stuff. You have no room to judge what I do with my time.”

“But this is Zim time!” Zim growled. “I demand you find me something else to do, or I’ll rip out your eye-“

“-Okay! Okay, okay. Just.. give me a second to think, and remember, we have a truce.” Dib pondered over what other thing could occupy Zim for a while. It was difficult, considering he had done mainly everything. He sat in silence and thoughtfully held his chin.

He was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of Zim screaming. He had forgotten how impatient that bastard was..

“Zim has had enough of waiting! Give me those!” He gripped Dib’s headphones with his three-fingered hand and pulled them forward. Dib didn’t really want to fight with him, so he just let it happen.

Zim just held them. He didn’t quite know what they were, and he was not going to ask Dib about it. Dib told him anyway.

“They’re headphones. They go around your ears and play sounds into them. Music, in our case.”

Zim’s expression hardened. Apparently, headphones were useless to Irkens, since they didn’t exactly have ears. His antenna were the closest thing to them. Zim raised a non-existent brow and put the headphones up to his antenna.

“I hear nothing! These headmuffs are useless!”

“Headphones, Zim, and that’s because nothing’s playing right now.” Dib grabbed his Walkman and clicked the play button. His mixtape began spinning, and the music flowed out in return.

Zim blinked thoughtfully as he listened to the strange music. He.. didn’t have words for it. This was nothing like what they had on Irk. “What is this?”

“Can’t say. I don’t know what you’re listening to.”

Zim’s antenna perked a bit. This was the most focused Dib has seen Zim in his life. He felt a bit happy that someone appreciated his taste in music, but what song was Zim listening to anyway? He decided to hear for himself. Dib reached over and began rummaging through his bedside drawer, not stopping until he found what he was looking for: an extra pair of headphones. You could never be too careful about them breaking.

Dib plugged the cord into his Walkman, and listened for a tune. He was pleased to find the current song was, ‘Fooled Around And Fell In Love”, by Elvin Bishop.

“This is one of my favorites,” Dib said. His mouth was gradually curving into a smile as he listened to the classic tune. Watching Zim just made it better, because he really seemed to be enjoying it. “How is it, Zim?” Dib had forgotten you couldn’t hear anything with the headphones on. Besides, Zim seemed distracted. He was swaying, even dancing a bit.

When Dib heard the song come to an end, he paused the playlist to ask for Zim’s feedback. “So, how did you like it? I have tons more on here. I’m pretty sure I burned twelve songs into this one. Pretty cool, right?”

Zim slid the headphones from his head and held them thoughtfully. “Mhm. Yes.” Zim was still thinking over the songs. He liked the way that one made him feel, but he wanted to, ‘expand his horizons’, as the humans so often said. “Play another of the 80s sounds, Dib-thing,” Zim said as he slid the headphones by his antenna.

“O-Okay!” Dib was more than happy to comply. He grabbed his cassette player and clicked play again. After a beat of silence, the music started up again. ‘Escape’, or ‘The Pina Colada Song’ by Rupert Holmes was up next.

“I think you’ll really like this one, Zim,” Dib said, a bit louder than normal.

Again, the alien could hear nothing but the music. Dib looked to Zim, smiled, and closed his eyes. Finally, they were actually bonding over something.

 

**-**

 

Dib was quick to let Zim come in the next day. He had never really been able to show his friends new things because, well, he didn’t have any. This was his chance, and an even more interesting with Zim involved.

Dib was glad to find Zim was also in an eager mood that day. He wanted to use Dib’s ‘headmuffs’ the second he stepped through the door. Dib gladly led them to his room, and they quickly sat down on the bed. They put on their headphones nearly in sync. Dib grabbed his cassette player and started the mixtape.

Dib soon realized how awkward this might seem. The lights were off, and the only light that was visible came from the blinds. They sat huddled on Dib’s bed in the dark, listening to the exact same song at the exact same time, almost directly across from each other. They kept good distance between themselves. At least, they did for a while.

At about the 6th song, both had started to slightly doze off. The music had put them both in a calm state of mind, and even Zim was struggling to keep his eyes open. Dib eventually decided to lay down on his back with his arms behind his head for added support. He removed his glasses ahead of time, just in case he fell asleep, and he thought that was a very wise decision.

When Dib had decided to lay back, however, Zim was still leaning over with his head propped on his elbow, listening to the music with Dib. Dib knew it was of no use to question Zim, mainly because he couldn’t hear anything and Zim might get very irritated, so he just closed his eyes and let himself drift off into sleep.

He hadn’t dreamt about anything, but he woke up to the odd sensation of a weight on his chest, with a warm sensation to the side of him. He couldn’t see it, due to his lack of glasses, so he reached to his drawer and placed them on his face. Dib realized the Walkman was no longer playing music. They must have fallen asleep before they finished the track.

He looked down to find his cassette player on top of him, still connected by two headphone jacks. A green figure was lying next to him, curled in a ball with his face nuzzled into Dib’s shoulder. His headphones still sat on his antenna, but the antenna twitched slightly as he slept.

Dib felt a blush begin to rise in his face. The alien was so warm, and.. cute. That was a first. He looked so small and innocent laying there, like he wouldn’t hurt a fly. Of course, Dib knew that was a lie, but anyone else may have fallen for the trick. He felt a smile pull on his lips. He reached to take Zim’s headphones off his antenna.

Dib was holding them with one hand and moving to put them up when he saw a flash of red in the corner of his eye. He looked to see what it was. Zim was staring lazily at him, causing a rush of blood to go to his face.

“Zim? You fell asleep.”

Zim scanned his surroundings. His face began to turn a light green. He squeezed his eyes shut and groaned. He ran his hand over his head to his antenna. His squeedly-spooch leapt when he found his headphones gone, and he jerked up to search for them.

Dib propped himself up on his elbow, being curious as to what Zim was doing.

“Uhh, Zim? What’s the problem?”

Zim mumbled something that Dib couldn’t quite understand.

“What? I don’t understand.”

“Zim cannot find his headmuffs!”

“Do you mean headphones?”

“Whatever! Zim cannot find them!”

“Zim, it’s okay. I have them,” Dib held the headphones up to show they were safe. “I took them off while you were asleep.”

“You didn’t ask!” Zim hissed.

“You were asleep! What was I supposed to do?” Dib was confused about what the problem was. He didn’t do any harm. He did remember, however, that Zim hated his stuff being taken, even when the things weren’t really his.

“You should have woken Zim up and _asked_ ,” Zim said with a sour tone.

“I didn’t want to! You just looked so.. peaceful. I didn’t know if you would have an outburst.”

“Zim does not have outbursts,” he barked. Zim lifted himself off the bed with his PAK legs and placed himself on Dib’s floor. He slid open the window and looked back to say, “And Zim is _never_ peaceful!” His PAK legs then carried him out the window, into the street, and towards his base. Dib leapt from his bed to watch the alien take off. “Come on, don’t be like that!” He yelled, but he was only responded to with silence.

Great. In 2 weeks, this was the 2nd time Zim had stormed off. At least this time he didn’t break the window.

 

**-**

 

Zim didn’t come back the next day. Or the next. It could have been because of what Dib said about him being peaceful or whatever, but maybe he was embarrassed about falling asleep so close to Dib. Either way, Dib was starting to miss his friend. Could he even call him that? Zim had tried to kill him numerous times, and vice versa, but they had recently been getting along pretty well. They usually did, anyway.

He was starting to worry about the alien though. And maybe even miss him, just a little. Dib had to admit, he liked having Zim around to keep him company. He was good entertainment, and Dib was sometimes even able to get some information about Irken technology out of him. Zim would go on for hours about how superior it was, how the Irken empire was the greatest in the entire galaxy. When Dib responded with the sly comment, ‘greatest empire in your Irken dreams’, Zim hissed and broke his window. Dib apologized the next day, but Zim was still bitter about it for a while.

Damn, Dib really did miss Zim. As weird as that was to say. He missed the old fashioned fights but, most importantly, he missed Zim’s company. Dib had hung out with Zim before the truce in non-violent ways, but those weren’t extremely common. In the time they were getting along, he was very observant about the way Zim behaved. It was interesting, and very complicated. Dib loved it when Zim would find something new and immediately launch into a thread of questions about it.

The way his green antenna perked up when he was interested in something was especially endearing. They seemed to be very movable, since they twitched and changed position based on the situation. The fact that they could also hear and feel vibrations was interesting, to say the least.

Listening to 80s music alone just wasn’t the same anymore. Watching Zim’s reactions just made it.. so much better. Somehow, for some some stupid reason.

“Shit. I have to apologize.”

 

**-**

 

Dib got dressed, sporting his typical trenchcoat and ghost t-shirt, then grabbed his Walkman with 2 pairs of headphones, and headed towards Zim’s base. He checked his wrist-watch and was surprised that it was already 9. It was hardly even dark outside yet, but the sky was filled with a splendid mix of pinks and blues.

Dib was a bit nervous, honestly, but he couldn’t really understand why. His stomach seemed to be in knots the whole way over. Dib wasn’t one who liked apologizing. Maybe that was the problem.

When he reached Zim’s base, he made sure to stealthily walk by the garden gnomes and to the door. He knocked on the door a few times and waited patiently, before Zim swung it open with a grimace on his face.

“What does the Dib want at this hour?”

“I’ve been thinking about it and, well,” Dib rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the ground, “I, uh, wanted to apologize.”

“Hm. Apologize for what exactly, Dib-thing?”

“Apologize for, y’know, saying all those things the other day. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. Really.”

Zim eyed Dib for a few more seconds. He eventually stepped back and gestured with a gloved hand. “Come in.”

Dib felt his shoulders lift with relief. He couldn’t help smiling as he walked inside. “Thanks.”

Zim shut the door and stepped ahead of Dib. “Follow me,” he said, and escorted Dib underground to his computer room. Dib was impressed, as always, but he had been here a few times before.

There was a table filled with scraps of all kinds in the middle of the room. Zim immediately stepped towards it and grabbed a metal box from the center of the mess.

“I’ve been working on this ever since I saw that contraption of yours, Dib-smell.”

“What is it?”

“You tell me.” Zim pulled what looked like an exact replica of Dib’s mixtape from the midst of the scraps. Zim popped it into that little device of his. He grabbed an aux cord attached to his computer and plugged it into the device. Then he pressed a button, and music began flowing out of his computer speakers. “I thought this would be a fun activity to pass the time that you weren’t begging for me to come back. I knew you would, Dib-thing.”

Dib couldn’t be mad about Zim’s taunting. The song playing was another of his favorites, which was Come On Eileen, by Dexys Midnight Runners. “For an alien, you have good taste. I just wish we were listening to it in my room or something.”

“Idiot. We don’t have to be in your room. We can listen to it right here,” Zim said with a mocking tone.

“I know we can, but..” Dib couldn’t really find a reason why he wanted to be in his room. Zim’s place was probably better, anyway. “I don’t know. It just feels.. weirder here.”

“Maybe we can make it more comfortable,” Zim said as he stepped forward. “I’ve been reading up on your common human rituals that go with music. Some like to sing with it, some like to work with it, but the most fascinating Zim found was that you dance to it. Not always alone, but with partners. Is that true, Dib-smell?”

“Well, y-yeah. I guess it is.” Dib wouldn’t lie, he was tempted to dance with Zim ever since the music started up. Damn, he was in for it now. These thoughts would kill him eventually.

“Zim would like to try these partner dances. So, Dib,” he purred, walking very cooly towards the other, “Zim would like to request you to be his partner.”

“Zim didn’t command me to do something? That’s a first.”

“Just teach Zim how to do it, Dib-stink, before he gets Gir to escort you out.”

Dib was quick to pull Zim into a partner dance after that. He took Zim’s three fingered hand and guided it to his shoulder, while he clasped their hands together with the other. Dib placed a hand on Zim’s slim waist, and they began to move. It was a bit awkward, at first, but Zim swiftly became used to the movements and the position. Dib could feel the blood pumping in his face, but he made no sign that he knew. He struck up some conversation to lighten the tension.

“So, this is your first time doing a partner dance? You’re a pretty fast learner.”

“Zim has always been that way. He is a genius, after all.”

“Mhm. Sure,” Dib chuckled. Zim didn’t seek to like that very much.

“Much more of a genius than you, Dib-smell,” Zim hissed and stuck his tongue out to taunt the other. Dib couldn’t help to laugh even harder.

After about two songs, the pair felt themselves naturally drifting closer together. The song had changed to, ‘I’m Not In Love,’ by 10cc. Why did it have to be so damn romantic? Dib’s face was only getting more red, and Zim was growing more and more attractive. Especially with the lighting that just had to give him that perfect look. The feeling in his stomach was so strong, it was painful. He could only recall feeling them to such an extent when he was in 8th grade, doing another slow dace just like this with Gretchen. This was not nearly the same thing. This, dancing with Zim, was far better.

Zim closed the inch between their chests with a quick tug, and Dib was sure Zim could feel how rapid his heartbeat was. Maybe he could even his chest growing hotter. The entire room felt too warm, and he hated it, yet liked it, at the same time. Dib looked down to Zim, and the alien met eyes with him nearly in sync. This was a rare time when Zim wasn’t wearing his disguise. He much preferred it that way. Zim’s natural eye color was much more stunning.

“Is the Dib-thing liking the dance?”

“Yes,” Dib responded, almost too quickly. “It’s nice. Do you think so?”

“Yes,” Zim nodded, his eyes seducing Dib in such a terrible way. “Zim is very much enjoying it. However, there are other common rituals that usually accompany these, ‘slow dances’.”

Zim could see Dib’s eyes widen with shock, and he immediately knew what Dib was thinking. He groaned. “Not that, you idiot. But something.. similar. Zim would say it’s even better.”

Dib’s half-open eyes were now very close to Zim’s own and soon they were closed entirely. Zim’s lips were pressing onto his, and that was all that mattered. Dib kissed back eagerly, and Zim rewarded him with a faint brush of gloved fingertips on Dib’s neck. Dib moaned at the feeling, and brushed his tongue on Zim’s lips to return the favor. Zim moved his small hands to Dib’s shoulders and gripped them firmly as they continued.

This was so much better than any other kiss he ever had, even though there were few to count. Every other time, he had been distracted. His mind was always on other things, like whether he turned his computer off or left the car running. Now, all that could run through his mind was Zim. The music was still in his head, but it faded out a long time ago. His main focus now was Zim, Zim, and Zim. And he loved it.

When the need to breathe couldn’t be ignored any longer, Dib placed a hand on Zim’s chest and pulled back. Zim’s face was a dark, elegant green, and his lips were slightly parted. Dib was very tempted to dive back into the makeout session, but he needed to catch his breath. Dib fixed his glasses and grinned. 

“That was.. amazing. I didn’t know you were so good at that.”

“You don’t know many things, Dib-thing.” Zim grabbed the lapels of Dib’s trenchcoat and pressed their foreheads together. “Human brains are so complicated.”

Zim kissed Dib again, with more passion than even before. Dib pressed a hand to Zim’s back and pressed their bodies together. One thing was for sure: Dib would never forget the power of 80s music, especially on little green aliens.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! This was inspired by 80s music (duh), because it’s honestly one of my favorite things to listen to when writing.
> 
> -
> 
> Instagram: @Pharisia  
> IZ Amino: @Stygmia  
> Tumblr: @Akumahi


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